For some reason I couldn't figure out how to write on that last post so I'm dong it down here. In the 1st picture, Maggie is handing out her cookies to everyone after our Thanksgiving dinner. She decorated them with my mom.
The next picture is the day after Thanksgiving and we were all about to get the stomach flu. It was so not awesome that I won't even discuss it. Maggie is reading a book to her brother. This is very rare so I had to capture the moment. So cute! I decided to go on a no-tv and no i-pad kick for 10 days. Seanie at first was having withdrawls cause it is like heroin for him. But we got him in a detox program and he's good now. He is a totally different kid and I've come to realize that Maggie doesn't have a TV/media addiction but my son does and I have to monitor the amount so he doesn't become "hooked" again. We are now on a limited amount a day and I swear he is a totally different kid. Lately I've been laying him down for bed first and then Maggie after. He now calls for me after and yells, "I wanna wok Mama" "I wanna wok Mama" wok=rock...But his new voice is not some sweet voice... I can only describe it as a lead singer to a heavy metal band yelling for his mommy. It's funny but very demanding! I've been rocking him to bed and he actually has fallen asleep in my arms. It's funny cause in old posts I had to hold him and rock him all the time and he rarely slept. I just wanted to put him down and now I have the opposite feeling where I just want to hold him.
Maggie has been really fun lately too! I've been spending a lot of intentional time with her lately because I get in these funks where I just want to be left alone and I want to clean, cook, go on the computer, watch TV, workout. I want to be by myself and this last week I just decided to play. We've had dance parties, dress up, tea, dollhouse, and "pretend" mommies. (She actually pretended she had 3 babies and it took a lot of processing for her to figure out that they weren't twins so she decided to call them troubles instead of triplets - I thought any mom of triplets would agree with that mistake). It's been so fun to see her use that imagination. It makes me miss teaching but then it also helps me realize that I can use those same teaching skills with my own kids. Maggie and I also went on a date to see the Nutcracker in Alameda where my friend Carrie helps run the show. She is a former ballerina and I used to watch her perform. Maggie had a blast and held on to the Nutcracker program the whole next day. The picture on the front is the main girl and guy. In the morning she was looking at it for a long time until she finally looks up at me and says, "Mom, why is his pee pee showing?" I think coffee almost came out of my nose and I thought to myself... my daughter is just like me... It brings me back to a time where my cousin Maureen and I went to the Nutcracker performance with our moms and me and her got the giggles cause this guy in white tights is just dancing around the stage with his wiener just sooooo out there. They should really wear black tights. Why am I so immature? It was a funny moment that day. By the way, we were teenagers at the time... it wasn't last year or anything. ha ha ha
Ok - 3rd picture... My mom called everyone to eat for Thanksgiving and we had 16 people. It took about 15 minutes to get everyone to the table (probably football). But I did notice 2 people who listened immediately. I think they were very hungry. Good job Vinnie and Dad! Your prize is to do the dishes... :)
The next picture is my mom and Maggie. Maggie got to help my mom with the sugar cookies which is something my Grandma always did with me. I think I usually ate all the dough (I hope that was helpful to her). Thanks mom for having the energy to carry on traditions with my kids.
The next picture is Seanie and his 2nd cousin Jake playing on the piano. You can imagine how beautiful it sounded. That also reminded me of my Grandma and Nonno cause theres a lot of pictures of me on that piano as a baby. Love it!
The next picture is a Gap commercial we were shooting! I'm the kids agent if you need to contact me.
Since I obviously have time to write, I decided to share this with the one person that reads this blog hee hee..... I've had a lot of struggles with how people view my kids (or my parenting skills). Over the last 2 years I feel like I've gotten a lot of looks of disaproval. It could be my son's tantrums in stores, throwing wine bottles out of carts, hitting, biting, screaming etc. Nothing too bad right? After the Nutcracker, Maggie and I met up with Sean and Seanie at a restaurant (we rarely go out to eat) and if we do 50% of the time we have to leave. There were twin 2 year olds next to us and they were so well-behaved. I watched as 2 older ladies went over to the mom and told them how cute they were and well-behaved. Then of course they passed us and deep down I wanted to be the one to get a compliment on how well-behaved my children are. But since mine was throwing crayons and hiding under the table and Maggie was singing X-mas carols we didn't get that lucky. But deep down, Sean and I laugh and have so much fun with our kids who are funny and full of personality. But for some reason that is my hold-up lately... my struggle. I think I viewed myself as such an expert with kids that maybe I was one of those old ladies who would monitor other kids behavior and blame their parents if they were misbehaving (before I had my own).
So I decided to go to church on Sunday night cause they were having a night of worship and X-mas songs and kids were invited. I knew it would be hard with Seanie but Maggie was so excited to go. We got there and stayed about 20 minutes. Behind me, I of course had "mean lady" who didn't appreciate Seanie playing peek-a-boo with her or grabbing her water bottle or dancing to slow songs. Then I have "nice old lady" across the aisle who thought Seanie was the greatest kid she's ever seen. He ran back and forth giving her high fives and hugs. Then danced in the middle of the aisle and clapped. All I could do was put on a fake smile. All the way home I could only think of "mean lady" and how angry I was. But I think God talked to me that night... He basically said..."Hey moron, I mean Jordan,(I don't think God calls people morons, well maybe if they need a wake up call) it's not about you... you don't know what that mean lady is going through... maybe she couldn't have kids, maybe she just lost someone close, maybe she just found out she has cancer, maybe she just lost her job, maybe she is sad, depressed, lonely, hurting... maybe this maybe that".... It actually brought tears to my eyes because it's not about me and how great of a parent I am. It's just about loving people. So instead of feeling sad, I prayed for both of the women that were there and also thought about another nice lady at church earlier that day who watched Seanie in Sunday school and said to me.... "Wow, your son is soooo much fun, he is so independent... You know what he is? He is a free spirit" Sooooo as I raise my free-spirited children at Christmas time, I can watch them kick the blow up Santa on the motorcycle in front of our house, fart at In-n-out Burger and laugh, not sit on Santa's lap and not care if they bring them presents... But then I can also watch Maggie shop for a 3 yr old girl who's is not getting very many presents this year. She was so excited to pick something out and wrap it with special Tinkerbell wrapping. It so far is one of my favorite moments during this Christmas season. My 4 yr old was not throwing a tantrum cause the baby doll crib wasn't for her. She got it! And I'm so proud!
That was a lot of writing but it felt good and I'm glad to share it with my family and friends who I love and respect as mom's so much! :) Are you drooling on your computers... well, maybe you needed a little nap...
2 steps that your child is not ready for potty training:
This is Sean's 2nd favorite thing to do for X-mas is to cut down our tree. His 1st thing is putting up our X-mas lights. It's like Clark Griswald around here
This is Sean's 2nd favorite thing to do for X-mas is to cut down our tree. His 1st thing is putting up our X-mas lights. It's like Clark Griswald around here
